More and more Bollywood A-listers are coming up with creative ways to promote their films beyond the usual poster launches and music releases. Hindi cinema’s biggest celebrities – who had earned a snooty reputation for not engaging with the public – have finally woken up to the benefits of connecting with the audience on social media and promoting their upcoming projects in innovative ways. Priti Salian looks at a few of the Indian film industry’s savviest stars.
1 Salman Khan
Salman Khan's recent blockbuster, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, hit the headlines months before its release in June, thanks to its controversial subject matter – India-Pakistan relations. Then Salman's former nemesis, Shah Rukh Khan, unexpectedly posted the film's first image on Twitter, and that buzz about Bhaijaan nearly broke the internet.
SRK's tweet – "I believe Being a brother is bigger than being a Hero. Bhaijaan coming Eid 2015. How do u like the first look?" – stressed his previously questionable camaraderie with Salman. It got an enormous response, with more than 17,000 retweets and more than 25,000 favourites.
Salman also announced a selfie contest on Twitter, in which contestants had to post pictures of themselves, some of which were featured in a remix of Selfie Le Le Re, the film's opening song.
For the romantic drama Hero, which was released last month, Salman went a step further, and asked his fans to watch the film and email images of their cinema ticket stubs. The prize? One hundred lucky fans got an autograph from him.
2 Shah Rukh Khan
SRK’s fans remember how annoyed he was when he found “Love you SRK” and “C u on 15th” scribbled on the walls of his palatial villa, Mannat, located on the coast of the Arabian Sea in Mumbai’s most exclusive area, signed by someone called Gaurav.
“U can’t leave ur house for a day without sum one messing with it!! Shocked!!!” SRK tweeted.
As it turned out, this was a cunning promotional stunt for his upcoming film Fan, in which his character, named Gaurav, is the biggest fan of the world's biggest superstar (SRK plays himself in the film, as well as Gaurav).
The film is also associated with a campaign to identify 100 biggest SRK fans, which is running through the online fashion portal Yepme.com.
The winners will be featured on the film’s poster and introduced every day starting 100 days before the film’s release on April 15.
3 Akshay Kumar
After SRK, perhaps no other Bollywood star gets as much out of promotions as Akshay Kumar. Earlier this month, he promoted his comedy Singh in Bliing by getting fans to put on a turban and post selfies on Twitter with the hashtag @SIBTheFilm.
Kumar’s tweet read: “Share your #Singhfie (Singh + selfie) with the hashtag @SIBTheFilm, best one gets to meet me :)”.
4 Ranbir Kapoor
Ranbir Kapoor is not on Twitter, and often talks about his lack of social-media skills, a fact that was highlighted when he recently promoted a video with Deepika Padukone for their upcoming film, Tamasha. In the clip, he fumbles spectacularly (purposely?) over the film's social-media URLs, asking his audience to follow "TamashaFacebook.com" and "TamashaInstagram.com", while Padukone stands beside him, making no effort to hide her laughter.
An equally funny follow-up video shows director Imtiaz Ali telling Kapoor not to worry about promoting the film because his hopes rest entirely on Padukone. Kapoor's other upcoming drama, Anurag Kashyap's Jagga Jasoos, which features his girlfriend Katrina Kaif, will get a TV miniseries, titled Junior Jagga, that will showcase the early life of Jagga, with his love interest making an appearance in the last episode.
artslife@thenational.ae